GUNS Magazine May 2013 Digital Edition - Page 16

oVeRlooked RiMfiRe geM The high sTandard senTinel. I holt BoDinson enjoy cruising the used gun sections of our local gun shops for those hidden gems often just passed over because no one knows a thing about them and often, what they do know is simply passed on misinformation. During the last year, a remarkable rimfire revolver with real character begged for a new home, and I simply obliged it because the price was so right. The 1956 era, R-101 Model High Standard Sentinel I picked up is innovative in features often unnoticed and unappreciated. .44 Magnum carbine, the SecuritySix, the Redhawk, the Old Army, the Hawkeye and the Mark II pistol, but his greatest achievement was the design of the sensational, utterly reliable, 10-shot rotary magazine for the 10/22. The cylinder is locked into place by a springloaded ejector rod (above). Pulling forward on the ejector rod unlocks the little 9-shooter. Sefried’s unique ratchet design (below) minimizes wear on the ratchet and pawl. Lock time of the Sentinel is extraordinarily short. To fully appreciate High Standard’s Sentinel, you have to know something about its designer, Harry H. Sefried II. Sefried was one of the most creative firearm designers of the last half of the 20th century. At the end of WWII, he worked with Marsh “Carbine” Williams at Winchester, and then joined High Standard where he designed their leading models such as the Supermatic Citation and Olympic as well as the Sentinel revolver. In 1959, he joined Sturm, Ruger & Co., where he served as chief engineer from 1959 to 1979. For 20 years, Sefried was Bill Ruger’s alter ego when it came to fleshing out and refining designs that Ruger conceived. He played a prominent, personal role in the development and design of the the Sentinel Sefried designed the 9-shot Sentinel sometime in 1955. It was first introduced as the J. C. Higgins Model 88 by Sears Roebuck with a price tag of $37.50. Additional private label versions were produced for Western Auto and Col. Rex Applegate’s Mexican arms company, ARMAMEX. Looking casually at a common Sentinel, it doesn’t appear to be a remarkable design. In fact, casting an Cheap, yet packed with innovative features, Sefried’s Sentinel is a nonconformist in the handgun world. No screws. A single hammer pin holds the Sentinel components together. eye on the black anodized, cast-aluminum frame of the 1956 era R-101 model Sentinel pictured here, it looks cheap. Cheap in price only. The devil is in the details. Notice that there are no visible screws holding it together, just like a classic Mauser ’96 Broomhandle. Actually, there is one. It’s the screw securing the grip to the frame, but otherwise, the whole gun is held together by the single, visible hammer pin, securing the triggerguard, fire control system and grip to the main frame. Notice the unusual cylinder ratchet Sefried designed. There are no conventional ratchet teeth in the early Sentinels. In their place are nine, recessed detents at the rear of the star extractor that are engaged by a conventional pawl. The rotation and alignment of the cylinder are precise, and by eliminating the conventional sharp teeth of the ratchet, wear is minimized in the innovative Sefried ratchet and pawl system, which extended life of the gun. 16 W W W . G U N S M A G A Z I N E . C O M • M AY 2 0 1 3